


I see danger in your eyes

by GioseleLouise



Category: Cyberpunk 2077 (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Implied Relationships, Implied/Referenced Sex, M/M, Mentor Worship, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-12 22:00:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29641293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GioseleLouise/pseuds/GioseleLouise
Summary: For a moment, the hum from Oda’s blades fills the charged silence. Plasma crackling through air. The dragon float eclipses the moon, and Takemura’s expression is inscrutable in the dark.“You’re determined not to listen to me,” Takemura realizes.--Yorinobu leaves no loose ends, and Oda commits to his duties. Canon Divergence of Search and Destroy.
Relationships: Sandayu Oda/Goro Takemura
Comments: 7
Kudos: 5





	I see danger in your eyes

Sandayu Oda leaps into the air and rolls gracefully onto the scaffolding’s shaky platform. In a smooth, practiced motion, he rises to his feet and sprints towards the platform’s opposing edge. His right foot pushes off the side’s lowest railing, and he balances on the edge’s highest bannister before his cyberware kicks in, vaulting him to the narrow balcony one story above.

Two floors up, a figure sprints through the shadows, rushing towards the netrunner protecting Hanako-sama. Swearing under his breath, Oda’s optic cyberware hones in on the form, tagging their silhouette as they weave through the dark.

It’s infuriating how quickly their defenses have crumbled. All their snipers and security en route had crumbled like dust. Each carefully hidden drone, turret, and camera deactivated without pause, as if the attacker knew where every element would be. 

Oda shouldn’t be surprised. Secrets are parceled out like trinkets in this godless city.

Cutting edge cybernetics and decades of training keep him steady as he sprints across the tight, crumbling balcony. Below him, Hanako-sama’s performance fills Japantown with magic. It’s a hauntingly beautiful melody, executed with a skill that his employer had perfected for decades. 

No one in Night City, Oda thinks, is worthy of receiving such a performance, let alone from Hanako-sama. Yet his employer graces them all with an honor befitting Saburo-sama’s untimely demise. How shameful that degenerates see it as an opportunity to strike. How predictable, as well.

The attacker is gaining speed, and Oda eyes the ledge outside the Arasaka netrunner’s base of operations. It’s two stories up, but he has little time for a less-direct route; the attacker is one room away. He climbs onto the balcony’s large air-conditioning unit and activates his cyberware. The force of the jump crumples the metal under him with a loud  _ crack _ , and he leaps into the air, palms catching the window frame.

Effortlessly, he pulls himself into the room, where a hooded attacker is unplugging the netrunner. In one smooth motion, Oda unsheathes his thermal mantis blades and lunges forward, weapons posed for a fatal strike- but the attacker dodges faster than expected.

A voice comes from his left. “Your netrunner was a double agent.” 

That’s a voice that Oda hadn’t expected to hear, but one as familiar as the heat in his blades, and one that still makes his breath catch.

_ Fuck _ , Oda thinks, shutting his eyes behind his mask.  _ You idiot. I told you to stay away. _

The speaker continues in perfect Japanese. “Listen to me, Oda. I am on your side.”

“Traitor,” Oda growls. He sounds more pained than enraged, but still he raises his blades and points them towards the hooded figure by the wall. “What have you done here, Takemura?”

“V and I are saving Hanako-sama’s life.”

Oda snorts and paces forward, glowing mantis blades washing the threadbare room in neon red light.

Immediately, Takemura walks to the side, maintaining the distance between them. They circle each other like sharks in quiet, still waters. Outside, Hanako-sama has already finished her performance. The great, gray dragon that circles above her float glides in and out of the window’s view, obstructing light from the moon.

“Yorinobu plans to assassinate Hanako-same during the matsuri,” Takemura adds, eying the glowing blades. Somewhere in the shuffle, Takemura managed to unholster his assault rifle and point it at Oda’s head.

“So you claim to save Hanako-sama by eliminating her security detail?” Oda snarls. “None of this makes sense.”

“Yorinobu has planted his people among your agents. V and I did not have the luxury of deciding who among them were loyal.  _ Please _ , Oda.” The note of desperation in Takemura’s voice almost trips him up. Oda’s face heats, and he’s never been more grateful for his mask. The only time Takemura begged him for anything was in the bedroom.

“...Allow me to show you. V obtained a data shard with encrypted orders from Yorinobu. You must trust me.”

Trust.

The word twists his thoughts.  _ Trust _ killed Saburo Arasaka, and he will not make the same careless mistake with Hanako-sama. Oda steels his heart and raises his blades.

“No. I think you are stalling, Takemura. As we speak, your thief further weakens Hanako-sama’s security detail, placing her in more danger! All because of this intelligence you two have stumbled upon. How can you be sure it's legitimate?”

_ How could you put me in this position?  _ Oda wants to demand, but his heart screams:  _ I’m sorry. I’m sorry it’s come to this. I’m sorry, but I have to kill you. _

For a moment, the hum from Oda’s blades fills the charged silence. Plasma crackling through air. The dragon float eclipses the moon, and Takemura’s expression is inscrutable in the dark.

“You’re determined not to listen to me,” Takemura realizes.

Takemura’s disapproval would've leveled him, once. Oda would have second guessed any decision, would’ve dropped anything he was doing if Takemura spurned it, because they were always driving towards the same goal. Takemura was steady, as strategic and clear-headed as the emperor he guarded, and Oda spent his entire life following his lead.

Even now, after Takemura’s fall, the itch to wipe away the note of frustration claws at Oda.

“So. Are you going to fight me?” Takemura asks.

Oda takes a fortifying breath and barks, “I warned you at the docks to stay away.”

He lunges forward. Takemura fires; it’s lazy, something Oda dodges easily with Arasaka’s Sandevistan dilating time. In the breath of a second, Oda is in front of Takemura, his blades inches from his mark’s chest, but-

This close, Oda can see the silver of Takemura’s irises. He can feel the heat of his skin, follow the edges of his endo-cyberware. It’s been ages since they were this close, and Oda drinks him in, foolishly dawdling until his Sandevistan times out. 

In real time, Takemura dodges, sidestepping just out of reach. Oda’s blades slash uselessly against the sleeve of Takemura’s armored jacket. Takemura puts some distance between them, and his rifle stays pointed at Oda’s head, but there’s an amused twinkle in his eyes.

“I do not want to kill you either, Oda.”

"Because you cannot," Oda snarls, pouncing forward.

Takemura fires continuously at Oda’s heart, forcing Oda to sidestep, while Takemura moves to his right, until they’re circling each other again. Muscle memory kicks in, pushing Oda to the right, and Oda wishes so badly that he could pretend they’re sparring. 

He wishes they were at Arasaka compound instead of this disgusting city. He wishes this were an uneventful day, that this was routine training, and Takemura would wear him out on the battlegrounds then push him into bed and-

“Enough,” says Oda as his vision swims with an alert: Sandevistan is ready. Every moment he wastes on his heart is another moment spent shirking his duty. He can’t afford to indulge in weakness while Takemura’s thief wrecks havoc and puts Hanako-sama in danger.

“Let’s not delay the inevitable.”

The words are more to himself than anything. Oda will win. Takemura taught him everything he knows, and now the man is weighed down by delusion and deactivated cyberware, while Oda has the strength of a god. He activates Sandevistan, slowing time, and closes the distance between them. This time, Oda doesn’t let himself look; he plunges his mantis blade into Takemura’s gut and pushes him to the ground.

Oda ignores the smell of burnt flesh, the shock on Takemura’s face morphing into pain. He ignores the flash of heat running down his own spine, because this, Oda straddling Takemura’s hips, and pinning his shoulders down, is the position Oda liked most.

“Where is your thief?” Oda asks breathlessly.

Takemura stares at him with glassy eyes. “Taking out Yorinobu’s snipers.”

“Yorinobu-sama’s snipers,” Oda echoes sardonically. “No. Drop this charade, Takemura. Do you truly think I would be so careless? I would not have failed Hanako-sama. Not like you did.” He retracts his mantis blades and wraps his fingers around Takemura’s collar. Their story didn’t have to end like this. It hurt that Takemura was cast aside for failing his duties, but Oda could’ve contented himself with knowing he was alive.

“Why did you come here?”

“Sandayu. Please.” Takemura’s voice rings like a bell. Oda’s breath catches, because he always loved the way this man said his name; soft and intimate, like it was something precious.

“It’s not too late. We can still stop Yorinobu from assassinating Hanako-sama.”

“No. This is over, Takemura.”

Oda means it in every sense of the word. He takes a breath and unholsters his handgun, pressing the tip to Takemura’s forehead.

He waits for Takemura to say something, anything, but Takemura’s gray eyes are steeled and unafraid. How unfair that even now, Oda cannot change his mind. Oda commits his features to memory, pushes the trigger and-

A shot rings in the air.

Takemura gasps, and Oda is too stunned to react. 

Night City erupts in panic and screams, and even without his cybernetically enhanced hearing telling him the shooter came from one of his own sniper nests, Oda somehow knows what’s happened.

They’re both on their feet in seconds, swearing, leaning out the window to scan the matsuri. Arasaka personnel pierce the crowds, dispersing on-lookers as aerodynes swarm Hanako-sama’s float. Armor-clad Medical personnel and soldiers hop off the vehicles and race to her chamber like ants following a path. It’s a damning image, and Oda feels white-hot dread wash over him.

“Motherfucker.”

“We can’t stand around.” Takemura’s hand is firm on his shoulder, his other pressing a MAXDOC next to the gash in his stomach. It’s unfair that Oda’s knee-jerk reaction is to follow him without thought, but they’re rushing down the hallway regardless, Oda’s legs moving forward from the force of Takemura’s grip.

“Go to Hanako-sama,” he tells Oda calmly. “I must find V. She is still our witness, and with luck she likely knows the sniper that injured Hanako-sama. I will find you, after. Hopefully, I will come with the sniper at hand.”

Takemura guides him to the edge of a balcony overlooking the matsuri, and Oda’s optic cyberware kicks in, finding the shortest path back to the float. Excitement and the smallest thread of relief battles with the bone-deep fear for his employer. Hanako-sama may be hurt, but this, Takemura being brought back into the fold, fighting alongside him again, taking orders from him again, this was something he hadn’t dared to wish for.

“Where will you-” Oda calls out, but when he turns, his mentor is gone. Like smoke, like wind in this doomed city, Takemura is as intangible to him as he’s always been.

**Author's Note:**

> God, the inherent eroticism of devoted bodyguards. Can't tell if I love the Arasakas just 'cuz or if its because they're one of the few groups in this game with any power dynamics.
> 
> Much love to Wendy for the support <3  
> Thank you for reading - Feedback is much appreciated
> 
> Come say hi @ giosele.tumblr.com


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